Review: “Agony Anthem” EP by The Dialectic

**Between writing this review and it’s publication, The Dialectic have called time on their career in music, however we have left the review as it was written out of respect for the band and a love of their work**

A 4-piece Extreme Metal band known for bringing the heat from Tyler Texas, The Dialectic dropped “Agony Anthem” in April 2019, following up a pair of full length albums in 2013’s “We Are Obscurity” and 2016’s Self Titled effort not to mention their debut EP 2012’s “Alluvion“. Since then a pair of singles have got our attention so we’re heading back to review this one as they’re a band firmly on our radar. Before we get onto it, let’s dispell the notion that you can’t do Extreme Metal without two guitarists. Oh yes you can. Plenty of bands do it and do it well so whoever suggested that should go and check them out, including The Dialectic. After all, vocalist Mitch Howie, drummer Jeremy Alexander, bassist Andre Fornet and guitarist Josh McGuire have had their material streamed a lot with “Misbegotten One” being a prime example. It has clocked up the better part of 220,000 streams on Spotify alone. No one can argue with the numbers.

The video game soundscape of respawning into hell is the EP introduction “A Monster Reborn” with it haunting spoken word accompaniment that sets the tone. Title track and first song proper “Agony Anthem” builds from a tight lead into a solid Nu-Metalcore groove oriented slab of a riff that reflects Howie’s introspective lyrics about condescending voices. Wasting no time with an introduction “How It Ends” brings the rap screamed unclean vocals in within a second and dives straight into a powerhouse verse. Crunchy stuccato riffage is the breakfast cereal of choice in the Metal Noise house and they bring it with a fine flow, breaking off for some Deathcore growls and a slick Extreme Metal passage before a downtempo close.

“Silent Violence” has something of the Winds Of Plague sonics about it with a fabulous blast beat section and interesting use of dynamics, allowing the guitars to drop out for a verse before they punch back to create a heavier hit. Obvious joke about “Solar Flare Homicide” by Emmure aside, “Fire in the Sky” brings the Texas heat with some Demonic vocal tones. “Empires laid to waste, I hate everything” is the line that will be the call and response live with a dark and punchy energy and stompy chug attitude. Pulverising polyrhythmic bass driven “Dark Cursed Graves” utilizes vocal pitching to get a pair of voices into the track and is as short as it is sweet in blink and you’ll miss it fashion. Hell’s teeth but the whole EP is under 15 minutes and a great advert for what this band are about [7/10]

Track listing

1. A Monster Reborn
2. Agony Anthem
3. How It Ends
4. Silent Violence
5. Fire in the Sky
6. Dark Cursed Graves

“Agony Anthem” by The Dialectic is out now